Changes in S&P 500 Sector Weightings

Below we highlight the percentage change of the ten S&P 500 sectors both year to date and in May alone.  As shown, Energy and Financials were the big losers in May.  The big difference is that Financials are still up for the year, while Energy is now down 8.51% year to date.  The only other sector that is down year to date is Utilities, and it's only down 1.08%.  Technology had a rough May as well, but like Financials, the sector is still up year to date.  Consumer Discretionary is up the most year to date at 10.11%, and it only fell 5.87% in May, which is a little less than what the entire market fell.

Below we highlight the current weightings for the ten sectors of the S&P 500 and how they have changed since the start of the year.  The big takeaway here is just how much the Energy sector has lost.  At the start of the year, the Energy sector made up 12.27% of the S&P 500, which ranked it as the third biggest sector in the index.  After just five months, the Energy sector now has a weighting of just 10.66%, which is a drop of 1.60 percentage points.  Technology, Financials and Consumer Discretionary have gained the most market share so far in 2012, although they have all given up quite a bit of their gains in recent weeks.  Technology remains as the biggest sector of the market at 19.85%, and Financials ranks second with a weighting of 14.21%.  Health Care takes the place of Energy as the third biggest sector, while Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary rank 4th and 5th.  The Industrials sector is now just the seventh biggest sector of the market here in the US.

Below we provide long-term charts of S&P 500 sector weightings.  For each sector, the red line represents its average weighting going back to 1990.  At the moment, Technology, Health Care, Consumer Staples and Energy remain above their long-term average weightings, but Technology is the only sector that is solidly above its average.  The other sectors remain below their long-term averages, but Consumer Discretionary is notable in that its share has increased significantly since 2008.